This year I've decided to sketch many of The Great Holy Men and Women of the Church. Come along with me on this journey as we get to know our elder brothers and sisters in faith.

"And therefore we also having so great a cloud of witnesses over our head, laying aside every weight and sin which surrounds us, let us run by patience to the fight proposed to us," Heb 12:1

John of Damascus

December 3

John of Damascus [Arabic: يوحنا الدمشقي, Yūḥannā ad-Dimashqī] [c. 675 or 676 – 4 December 749] was an Arabian monk and priest. Born and raised in Damascus, he was a polymath whose fields of interest and contribution included law, theology, philosophy, and music, he served as the Chief Administrator to the Muslim caliph of Damascus before his ordination. He wrote works expounding the Christian faith, and composed many hymns, both in Greek and his native Arabic, which are still used liturgically. He is best known as a strong apologist for the use of icons, and his condemnation of iconoclasm.